Hubballi-Tirupati flight soon

A new domestic flight route in the state will be added soon with daily flights commencing between Hubballi and the temple town of Tirupati.

Star Air, which has its headquarters in Bengaluru, had earlier this year won the route in the second round of bidding under the UDAN or the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). Though the airlines’ name does not figure in the DGCA winter schedule which is effective till March 30, 2019, an official said that the airline would commence operations soon.

“The date of operations and bookings will be announced soon. We are yet to get clearance from authorities and once we get it, we will make a formal announcement,”said an airline official. Currently, there are flights from Bengaluru to Tirupati.

The airline, which will be operating Embraer aircraft, has received the aircraft which will be operated on the RCS routes. In January, Star Air, apart from the Hubbali Tirupati route, has also won Hubbali-Hindon (Delhi), Hubbali-Pune-Hubbali under UDAN scheme.

Under the UDAN scheme the passenger airfare for one-hour journey of 500 km on a fixed wing aircraft is capped at Rs 2,500, with proportionate pricing for routes of different stage lengths / flight duration.

The selected airline operator would have to provide 50% of the flight capacity (subject to a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 40) as RCS seats for operations through fixed wing aircraft.

Over the last few months, the airline has been on a hiring spree, conducting interviews for pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers, ground and other support staff for its Bengaluru and other locations. The scheme is jointly funded by the central and state governments.